If Sachin is God, Gayle is Godzilla

        Chris Gayle smashed all the way to reach a milestone of scoring the fastest century in any form of Cricket in just 30 balls in the Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) match against Pune Warriors India on Tuesday in Bangalore. Gayle scored an unbeaten 175 in just 66 balls with 17 massive sixes and 13 fours and helped Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to reach 263 in 20 overs.

            Of the 30 balls that Gayle faced, 7 were dot balls. 4 singles, 8 fours and 11 sixes. By the time he reached his century, 98 of Gayle’s runs had come in boundaries (8 boundaries and 11 sixes). For the record, he consumed 23 balls to reach 150 from 100, which was the slowest of the three fifties, giving a fair indication of what he actually did to the clueless bowlers. Barring Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Luke Wright, none of the bowlers were spared by Gayle, with Ali Murtaza and Mitchell Marsh going for 45 and 56 runs in two and three overs respectively. Aaron Finch was smashed 29 runs in the only over that he bowled. Gayle’s strike rate at the end of the innings was a staggering 265.15. Earlier, the record for the fastest century in IPL was held by Yusuf Pathan off 37 balls. Pakistan’s explosive batsman Shahid Afridi holds the record of fastest international century in the 50-over format (37 balls) and South African Richard Levi (45 balls) has made the quickest international T20 hundred. Gayle reached the milestone by hitting Dinda for a six on the fifth ball of the ninth over. Gayle and Tillakaratne Dilshan (33 from 36 balls) added 167 runs for the opening partnership in which 127 were contributed by Gayle. Even as there was no stopping the Gayle-storm, AB de Villiers made 31 off just 8 balls.

            Gayle’s 30-ball century eclipsed the 34-ball hundred scored by Australian Andrew Symonds for Kent against Middlesex in 2004. The left-hander also posted the highest individual score in a Twenty20 game, going past New Zealander Brendon McCullum’s 158.

            It was an unbelievable innings played by one-man demolition army Chris Gayle that smashed a whole lot of T20 records.

·         Highest individual score in T20: Chris Gayle, 175 not out

·         Highest team total: Royal Challengers Bangalore, 263

·         Most number of sixes hit by an individual: Chris Gayle, 17

·         Fastest 100 in T20 (also in any format of Cricket): Chris Gayle, 30 balls

·         Highest opening wicket stand in T20: Chris Gayle (127) and Tillakartne Dilkshan (33), 167 runs

·         First batsman to hit 150 sixes in IPL: Chris Gayle

·         Longest six in IPL: Chris Gayle, 119 meters